Salty what!?

Numerous years ago when I was assigned to the Field Operations Bureau (Patrol Division) in my last department, I chose to work the weekend graveyard shift.

Why? Because it's a lot of fun and usually at the expense of the local citizenry who just can't seem to manage their lives without us, the police becoming involved.

I worked with a great group of people and our Sergeant would let us do our jobs and not micro manage us.

Typically after we had broken up some bar fights and arrested a few drunk drivers, it would usually become slow and manageable. Due to the early hour of the morning, there were few places open. Thank God for 24 hour gas stations with those food marts. You could always count on a hot cup of coffee, 24 -7.

This particular food mart had these magnetic signs letting customers know what items were sold in that isle. I noticed these were simple magnetic signs. As I took a drink from my coffee cup I saw that one of the signs read "salt / meat snacks".

Leave it to cops to always find humor in things, such as funny magnetic signs. I removed the sign, walked out to my patrol car and opened the trunk. I removed some black electrical tape from some of the car's wiring and changed the sign to read "salty meat snacks".

I stuck the magnetic sign on my beat partner's patrol car trunk so you could read it if you were stopped behind him. I let him drive around the rest of the shift like that. Of course I told him about it at our last "coffee break" of the shift.

My beat partner had a great sense of humor. I sure hated to see him leave for another department. Fresno PD sure got a great guy.